


Red, Green, White

by blossomedace



Category: SHINee
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Christmas Party, Fluff, M/M, Mention of alcohol, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-08
Updated: 2017-01-08
Packaged: 2018-09-15 15:53:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9242843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blossomedace/pseuds/blossomedace
Summary: Jonghyun wears an ugly Christmas sweater to a party. He may or may not regret it.





	

**Author's Note:**

> My first ever completed fic. Crossposted for SHINee Secret Santa hosted by @secretshinee on tumblr.

He was late, so incredibly late.

Hurriedly grabbing his coat and the paper gift bag sitting in his passenger seat, Jonghyun rushed out of his car. An elderly woman scuttling out of the convenience store nearby jumped at the sound of his door slamming shut.

It was almost 8 already. Streetlights dotting the sidewalks bathed the night in a warm glow. Even with two days left before Christmas, the sky had stubbornly refused to snow all day, leaving the pavement completely bare.

He was gonna get an earful from Jinki for sure, Jonghyun thought as he dashed straight towards the apartment building. His face instantly forming an embarrassed wince after shooting one last look at his Hyundai. The car was more diagonal than it was parallel; one of the front wheels pressed up against the sidewalk and the tail of the car jutted out awkwardly onto the road. For a split second, he considered fixing his terrible parallel parking. But a brief glance at his wristwatch convinced him he was already far too late.

After what seemed like an eternity inside the elevator, he finally reached the 12th floor. A whole swarm of butterflies fluttered wildly in his stomach. Muffled sounds of music and laughter guided him towards Jinki’s apartment. After checking his watch one more time, he finally gave the door a timid knock. It swung open abruptly, revealing a figure wearing a Santa hat.

“About time,” Jinki said.

Jonghyun felt the smile fall from his face, “Look, Jinki, I’m really sorry or being late like this,” he began apologetically. “I was at my mom’s house and I left way later than I should’ve. And then, of course, there had to be a traffic jam on the way back to my place. I heard from the radio that there was some kind of accident, with a truck and a mini van and-“

“Whoa, Jjong. Hey, it’s okay.” Jinki interrupted, laughing lightly. “I got your 13 voice messages explaining why you were late, don’t worry about it. Come in, come in.” Jonghyun, though a bit bewildered, lets Jinki herd him into the apartment.

The party was in full swing. Fairy lights and all manner of Christmas decorations were strewn all throughout the cozy living room. By a plush couch, sat a tall Christmas tree, glowing brightly over the stack of presents below. A huge crowd gathered by the stereo, laughing into their drinks and bobbing their heads to the beat of the music. Over by the kitchen, figures with matching Santa hats struggled with a confetti stick.

It was actually both a Christmas party and a housewarming one. Jinki and his friend Minho had been roommates since college and had finally moved out of their dingy sub-basement dwelling.

“Guess how many dead cockroaches we found in our four years of living there,” Jinki said to Jonghyun one day while they rummaged through the office pantry. After a good five minutes, all the two of them managed to find was an expired carton of milk and a half eaten Choco Pie still in its wrapper. They could always go for instant ramen, but Jonghyun was starting to get paranoid about getting holes in his intestines with the amount of ramen he was consuming. “Actually, no, don’t guess,” Jinki continued, shoving yet another empty drawer close, “I don’t even remember how many.”

This apartment, on the other hand, looked a lot nicer and, thankfully, dead-cockroach-free.

“What I meant when I said ‘about time’ was about time you got here or else I would’ve lost.” Jinki explained. A few guests passed by them, co-workers and guests heading straight for the drinks’ table. “See, when we heard you were gonna be late Minho made a bet that you’d only get here after 8. And as it happens,” he paused, pointing at the clock o the far side of the room. The hand was mere inches away from the number 12, “It’s 7.58. So I win. I knew I could count on you, Jjong.”

“Oh,” Jonghyun blinked, wrapping his head around Jinki’s explanation before a relieved smile broke on his face. “Right, well, no problem. Hey, since I’m so generous I even brought a little something.” He started dangling the paper bag in front of Jinki’s face, grinning mischievously as faint sounds of liquid sloshing around inside the bag drifted in the air between them.

A whole Christmas tree’s worth of lights brightened Jinki’s face as he peeked inside. “It’s like you read my mind. You can go ahead and put this in the kitchen. Oh, but do me a favor will you? Don’t let Minho know that you’re carrying a full bottle of alcohol.”

“Where is he anyway,” Jonghyun asked, tucking the bottle back into its bag, “Aren’t both roommates supposed to welcome their guests?”

“He’s a bit busy,” Jinki gestured towards the corner of the room.

At that moment, Minho unhooked a plastic red bauble form the Christmas tree and attempted to balance it on his head. He managed to keep it on for a few seconds, all the while whooping and hollering to make sure everyone around him saw. It rolled off suddenly, sending a wave of laughter through the crowd. Minho smiled giddily, nearly spilling his drink as he picked the bauble up from the ground.

Jonghyun laughed in amazement, “Is he drunk already?”

“Yup. He had an early start.” Jinki shook his head almost apologetically, “Hey, come to think of it, I better collect my money before he passes out and completely forgets about our bet. You enjoy the party, alright?” He walked away after giving Jonghyun one last pat on the arm. Then, as if the thought had just occurred to him, Jinki turned around with an amused smile and said, “Oh and Jjong, nice sweater”

It was then that Jonghyun noticed how severely he stood out. While all the other guests were dressed pretty casually, Jonghyun’s outfit was louder than everything else in the room combined – including Minho.

In fact, he was wearing the definition of the ugly Christmas sweater. The whole thing was drowning in a shocking shade of red, dotted with little Christmas trees, and adorned with tiny balls of white cotton. In the midst of the red, green, and white, however, was a cartoon reindeer in a perpetual state of winking. Most people were polite enough to pretend like they weren’t staring, but it was obvious just how ridiculous his outfit looked.

Horror and humiliation settled in the pit of Jonghyun’s stomach. Shyly covering the reindeer’s one open eye, Jonghyun made a beeline straight for the kitchen.

All the while averting his sweater from the party, he reached the kitchen counter with his heart drumming in his ears. He’d chosen the sweater, a last minute decision he’d made before racing out the door. His sister had given it to him as a joke gift for last year’s Christmas. It was meant to be a Christmas party after all; he thought, people are supposed to dress festive at Christmas parties, right? Apparently not, Jonghyun sighed as he uncovered the reindeer’s eye.

Feeling mortified, he took out the bottle of wine from its bag. As he tossed the bag into a bin, a familiar voice calling his name broke through blaring music. Turning around, he spotted a smiling figure strolling straight towards him.

“Lee Taemin?” Jonghyun said, completely stunned.

“Kim Jonghyun!” The younger shouted, immediately pulling Jonghyun into a hug, “I thought I saw you earlier but I wasn’t sure. It’s been way too long!.”

Jonghyun ruffled Taemin’s head affectionately, “Definitely way too long. It’s been, like, what? Two years already? You’re the one who moved out of the neighborhood, remember?” How are you?”

“I’m great what about you?” Taemin asked, the corners of his mouth tugging into a small smile as he pointed at Jonghyun’s sweater. “I see your taste hasn’t changed much.”

“Hey you don’t have to point I got enough people staring at me already.” Jonghyun slapped his finger away, laughing. “Granted, I might have taken the Christmas theme a bit too far.”

Taemin nodded exaggeratedly, “Yeah, just a little bit. But you know, that sweater does look really familiar though.” He brought a finger to his face for a moment, drumming it against his lips as he racked his brain. Jonghyun saw the realization dawn on his dace.

“What is it?”

Taemin shook his head frantically. “Ah, nothing. Never mind. Come on, let’s get you a drink.”

“No, come on, what is it?” Jonghyun pressed on as they head back to the living room. Taemin waved his question before reaching the drinks’ table. Before Jonghyun could ask any more questions, Taemin quickly shoved a red plastic cup into his grip and raised his own.

“So I take it you were invited by Jinki?” Taemin asked. There was a sudden loud thud, followed by Minho – still with that giddy smile on his face, standing up to put away the present he had just tripped on.

Jonghyun nodded after taking a sip of his drink, “Yeah, we work together. What about you? A friend of Minho’s?”

“A friend of a friend.” Taemin corrected. “The friend who invited me to come along is one of Minho’s childhood friends. Which is kind of funny considering how different they are. I think I might have to thank him though. Thanks to him I got to see an old friend too.”

An even louder sound broke out from the far side of the room, this time coming from a coffee table being dragged by Minho. Its legs scraped loudly against the hardwood floors and bumped into every ankle in its path. Cups and napkins rolled off the table before it finally stopped in the center of the room. Then, one shaky leg at a time, Minho got up on the table, arms flailing as he finds his balance.

“Hey! Hey, everybody!” He shouted excitedly, raising his cup high into the air, “I just wanna say a few words to everyone here.” The room settled into a low murmur, all the party guests grinning at each other as they wait for Minho’s announcement. One of them even turned down the stereo’s volume.

“Okay, here we go.” He breathed, rubbing his hands together. “Welcome, first of all, to my – sorry, our – Christmas party.” He pointed a finger towards Jinki, who only laughed, “Now I don’t personally know all of you here, Jinki’s got friends I didn’t even know about apparently. But I just wanna say, I love all of you. I mean it, no don’t laugh, I’m not done. I love you guys. I- Oh.”

“Oh, but hey love really is in the air. Look at that we got people coming in a couple outfit today!” Minho exclaimed as he hopped excitedly on the table, impossibly growing louder with every jump. From the corner of his eye, Jonghyun spotted Jinki weaving through the crowd as he made his way towards Minho. “Kim Kibum, I didn’t know you knew Jonghyun. Look at your matching red sweaters, that’s adorable.”

A blonde haired boy emerged from the crowd. He stared defiantly at Minho, one hand gripping a red cup and the other cocked on his hip. “Choi Minho! What do you think you’re doing? I’m not wearing a couple look.”

“No, Kibum look!” Minho aimed his index finger towards Jonghyun, “Reindeers! You both have reindeers on your sweater! That’s so cute.”

A hurried Jinki broke through the crowd and started tugging at Minho’s jeans, yanking him a few times before the younger finally stepped off the table. Shooting an apologetic glance towards Jonghyun, he led a whining Minho away from the crowd and towards the kitchen. Meanwhile, the blonde named Kibum let out an exasperated sigh and trailed behind them.

As the sounds of Minho’s complaining died down, the rest of the room slowly shifted their gaze towards a petrified Jonghyun. Some of them quickly looked away, suddenly finding interest in a piece of confetti or a torn napkin. Others offered a sympathetic smile. And a few people, too drunk to care, barely made an attempt to hide their laughter.

“So,” Jonghyun cleared his throat, turning away from the rest of the party, “My sweater looked familiar, huh?”

Taemin grinned sheepishly just as the stereo returned to its original volume, “I was hoping nobody would notice?”

“Lee Taemin,” Kibum called out as he returned from the kitchen. A glass of wine sat cozily in his hand. He planted himself next to Taemin, shook the hair out of his eyes and took a large gulp of his drink. “I’m gonna kill him when he’s sober.”

“You always say that though,” Taemin pointed out. After exchanging a nervous glance with Jonghyun he finally added, “By the way, this is Kim Jonghyun. We used to be neighbors before I moved out two years ago. Jjong, this is the friend I was talking about earlier. The one who’s also Minho’s childhood friend, remember?”

Jonghyun was more than a bit surprised when Kibum extended his hand breezily, as if they they didn’t both just go through a hellish moment of embarrassment not two minutes ago. In fact, Kibum didn’t seem bothered at all. Jonghyun on the other hand, was starting to feel a creeping sense of self-consciousness.

While Jonghyun looked like someone’s weird uncle in his ugly sweater, Kibum somehow pulled it off flawlessly. His was the same shade of red as Jonghyun’s, and as Minho had so eagerly pointed out, also had a reindeer on it. Instead of Jonghyun’s winking reindeer however, his was a lot less cartoonish and was pulling a sleigh overflowing with presents and dozens of smiling elves. Jonghyun imagined his reindeer winking at every single one of them.

“So you’re Jinki’s friend?” Kibum asked, to which Jonghyun responded with a nod. “Minho invited me. I’ve been friends with that idiot since elementary school. You know when he asked me to come here he actually told me the theme of the party was for everyone to wear ugly Christmas sweaters. Guess he pranked you too, huh?”

“Oh I-“ Jonghyun stopped himself. “No, he didn’t prank me. I picked this out on my own.”

Kibum raised his eyebrows. He took a moment to study Jonghyun’s face before letting his eyes scan the rest of his outfit. Then, with a shrug of his shoulder, he smiled into his drink and said, “Well, I guess we both have good taste then.”

It was a compliment, one that revived the swarm of butterflies inside Jonghyun’s stomach. It was enough to plant the smallest of smiles on his face.

As the night went on, Jonghyun’s nerves eased slowly but surely. He found an unused confetti stick wedged under the couch and let it shower over Taemin’s head. He managed to get dragged by Jinki to the dance floor and they blazed through four EDM songs he swore Jinki said he hated just the week before. He let Minho pour him a glass of wine from the bottle he’d brought earlier and patted his head after Minho finished his drunken apology. And he talked to Kibum, a lot.

He spent a good 20 minutes laughing along with Kibum on the couch as they made fun of each other’s sweaters. He listened to Kibum rant about his and Minho’s whirlwind of a friendship by the kitchen counter. He told Kibum about the songs that he’s written, the childhood dream he had of being a songwriter, and the first guitar he got as a birthday present when he was 12 years old. They talked and talked and talked until he’d completely forgotten about how late he was to the party and how childish his sweater was because now he was too busy remembering the way Kibum always covers his mouth when he smiled and the way his nose scrunches up when he laughed.

His ugly Christmas sweater didn’t matter anymore. In fact, it felt like it hadn’t mattered at all.

 

* * *

 

 

Jonghyun watched as Jinki waved goodbye to the last few guests leaving his apartment. Hauling their extremely drunk friend through the door, the guests shot one last grateful smile towards Jinki before the door closed behind them. Looking somewhat relieved, Jinki plopped down on the floor next to Jonghyun, letting out a sigh as he stretched against the couch.

The clock read past midnight and suddenly the apartment felt far too quiet. Commotion from the party had died down as guests trickled out one by one. A soft Christmas melody drifting through the air replaced the blaring music from earlier. Crumpled napkins, plastic cups, and baubles littered the floor.

To Jonghyun’s right, Minho slept on the ground, curled up into a ball hugging his – now completely empty – bottle of wine. Jinki grinned as he picked out the pieces of confetti stuck to the younger’s hair. By the corner of the room, a drunk Taemin sat open-legged under the Christmas tree while stacking present boxes on top of each other. He’d frown angrily at the boxes whenever his stack toppled, judging them silently for betraying him before repeating the process all over again. One of his socks was missing.

Just then, Kibum walked in from the kitchen. If he was anywhere near drunk, he certainly wasn’t showing it. Balancing three glasses of wine in his hands, he navigated past the maze of napkins and cups and headed straight for the couch. He gave the glasses to the two eldest before sitting down next to Jonghyun. Meanwhile, the Christmas tree rustled angrily after Taemin kicked at it out of frustration; his building collapsed again.

“You’re still here,” Kibum said to Jonghyun, not taking his eyes off of Taemin.

“Not by choice,” Jonghyun admitted, elbowing Jinki’s side, “I’m on clean up duty, that’s what I get for being almost two hours late apparently.”

“Yeah you can start by cleaning Minho’s drool off the floor,” Jinki shot back, pointing at the puddle by the corner of Minho’s mouth. As Jonghyun’s eyes widened with fear and Kibum’s face crumpled with disgust, Jinki raised a hand, “Kidding.” He stood up, chuckling to himself, and left for the kitchen.

“You’re not leaving yet?” Jonghyun asked Kibum as soon as Jinki disappeared behind the kitchen door.

Kibum nodded towards Taemin, “Nah, I’ll let the kid have his fun.” The youngest struggled with another present box before letting out a groan when it slipped off the stack. Slowly, Kibum pulled out a napkin from his forehead and slid it towards Jonghyun. “Here.” He said, still without looking at him.

Jonghyun flipped it over, revealing a set of numbers in neat handwriting written in the middle of the napkin, “What’s this for?”

“When we go out next time, make sure you text me what you’re wearing first, okay?”

A single word in a single sentence sent Jonghyun’s heart fluttering at a million miles an hour. Kibum had said when not if.

“Okay,” Jonghyun breathed, toying around with the napkin for a moment before slipping it into his pocket.

Jinki returned moments later, dropping a pile of tissues by Minho’s head. Groaning as he sat back down, he took a single sheet of tissue before suddenly stopping himself. Shaking his head, he crumpled the tissue, tossed it aside, and lifted Minho’s head gingerly before laying it down on the pile as a makeshift pillow.

Content with his decision, Jinki picked up his glass as he settled back into his seat. “Hey,” he said, raising his glass, “here’s to Christmas.”

Kibum followed suit, “Here’s to not waking up with a hangover tomorrow.

Receiving an approving grin from Jinki, Jonghyun also lifted his glass. They watched him, glasses hanging in mid air while patiently waiting for his words. After a moment of hesitation, Jonghyun finally said, “Here’s to ugly Christmas sweaters.”

“Here, here!” Kibum cheered, and their glasses clinked.

The next few seconds were spent in silence. Taemin continued to balance one precarious box on top of the other as Kibum watched with an ever-amused smile. Jinki readjusted Minho’s head on top of the tissues as the sleeping figure grunted in response.

From the corner of his eye Jonghyun spotted the unmistakable flakes of white raining from the sky outside.

It was snowing.


End file.
